Kenneth
JandaPolitical Parties: A Cross-National SurveyNew York: The Free
Press, 1980: pp. 707-709INDONESIA:
The Party System in 1950-1956 and
1957-1962

(Text as
published in 1980 citation above)

The Dutch reluctantly recognized the sovereignty of
Indonesia in 1949, and a new constitution adopted in marked
the founding of the Republic of Indonesia. Under this
constitution, the government consisted of a president of
limited formal power, a unicameral legislature and a cabinet
responsible to the legislature. The first legislature, which
lasted from 1950 until the spring 1956, was not popularly
elected, however, but consisted of the membership of the
House and Senate of the old Dutch-created federal system,
the Working Committee of the KNIP (the Central Indonesian
National Committee, an advisory council to the president),
and the High Advisory Council. There were many party
groupings in this legislature, and no party ever held more
than 52 of the 236 seats. In the first popular elections in
the fall of 1955, four major parties--the Nationalist Party
(PNI), two Muslim parties (Masjumi and Nahdlatul Ulama), and
the Communist Party (PKI)--received about 80 percent of the
vote, but none had more than 57 seats in the 273 seat
parliament. The multiplicity of parties produced coalition
government and cabinet instability. Corruption, party
rivalry, fear of the Communists, and government
ineffectiveness in dealing with economic problems
contributed to disillusionment with parliamentary democracy.
Regional dissatisfaction with the Jakarta government led to
army takeovers in certain areas.

In February 1957, President Sukarno proposed revising
Indonesia's political system away from western parliamentary
democracy and required that all parties, including the
Communists, be represented in the cabinet and that all
social groups be represented in a National Council. Vice
President Hatta had resigned in opposition to this policy of
"guided democracy," and the Masjumi Party also refused to
accept Sukarno's proposals. New army coups in March outside
the island of Java produced a decree of martial law, the
collapse of Ali Sastroamidjojo's cabinet, and an increase of
Sukarno's powers. Failing an attempt by Suwirjo, chairman of
the PNI, to form a coalition cabinet of all major parties
and to establish a National Council, Sukarno himself formed
a cabinet, but one that contained no Communists and that was
boycotted by the Masjumi Party. This cabinet headed by
Djuanda Kartawidjaja and supposedly responsible to
parliament, was in fact responsible to Sukarno, whose
influence grew at the expense of parliament. In February
1958, regional leaders in Sumatra demanded that the new
Djuanda cabinet resign, that Hatta or someone else form a
new cabinet until elections were held, and that Sukarno
return to a constitutional role. The dissident leaders
proclaimed a revolutionary government but received little
support, and the revolt was broken by June. The roles of the
regional leaders and the Masjumi Party were seriously
weakened, while the central army leadership became stronger.
The army would have supported Sukarno's elimination of
political parties and movement toward a Guided Democracy,
but Sukarno feared confronting the army without some party
support. He thus resisted the army's plans for outlawing the
Communist Party, by then the only party with a strong
organizational backing. Thereafter, until 1962, Sukarno
governed by playing the army against the Communist
Party.

Civil liberties were curtailed, and the elections
scheduled for September 1959 were postponed. Sukarno decreed
that the 1945 constitution, which gave more power to the
president, would be readopted. The army's representation was
increased in the new cabinet, and all ministers were
prohibited from membership in any party. In March 1960,
Sukarno dissolved the old parliament and replaced it in June
1960 with a parliament divided about equally between
functional groups and political parties. But the Masjumi and
the PSI received no seats, and the Communists were
underrepresented, although they made up in representation
through the functional groups. In July, he introduced
regulations requiring parties to be above a minimum size and
to declare themselves in full ideological agreement with
Sukarno. In April 1961, according to Kahin (1963, p. 666),
he formally recognized eight parties: "the PNI, Partindo (a
small party which had split off the PNI's left wing), IPKI
(a small party with army connections), the NU, the Catholic
Party, that section of the PSII (a small Islamic party) led
by those of its leaders closest to Soekarno [sic],
the PKI, and the Murba (a small nationalist-Communist
party). Three months later the Parkindo (Protestant) and
Perti (a small Islamic party) were added to the approved
list."

The Masjumi and PSI parties were proscribed and their
leaders arrested in January, 1962. But Sukarno was still
without a major political organization entirely his own
throughout our time period.

Continuity
and Change since 1962

Indonesia
displayed far more change than continuity, as none of our
four original parties survived until 1978 and three new
parties appeared. All but one of the original parties,
however, contributed descendants to the new parties.

Original
Parties, Terminated

533
Communist Party. Once the most powerful political
organization in Indonesia, the Communist Party (PKI) was
literally destroyed following its abortive attempt to purge
the army leadership in 1965. When generals were found
murdered, anticommunist spirit was aroused throughout the
country and thousands of Communists were reported killed.
The party was formally banned in 1966, but only a small
segment of its original leadership remained. What was left,
moreover, split into Moscow and Peking factions, leading us
to regard the old PKI as ending in 1966.

531 Nationalist Party. The Nationalist Party,
which regularly held around 20 percent of the legislative
seats, terminated in 1973, when it joined with other
non-Islamic parties in the Indonesian Democratic party to
"simplify" the Indonesian party system, which was desired by
President Suharto.

532 Muslim Scholars' Party. The Muslim Scholars
(Nahdatul Ulama, NU), also a stable fixture in politics for
years, abandoned its separate existence in 1973 and merged
with other Islamic parties into the Unity Development
Party.

534 Council of Indonesian Muslim Association.
Commonly called Masjumi, this was one of the two largest
parties when it was banned by Sukarno in 1960 for continued
criticism of his government. The ban continued under
President Suharto, but former Masjumi members were allowed
to create the Muslim Party of Indonesia (PMI) in 1968. Also
known as Parmusi, this party is regarded as a continuation
of Masjumi. Nevertheless, it too ended in 1973 upon merger
into the Unity Development Party.

New
Parties, Continuing

535
Golkar. The original name was Sekber Golongan Karya,
which stood for Secretariat of Functional Groups when it was
created in 1964. It was organized by the army and the
government in 1970 as a party, governmental employees to
contest the 1971 elections. With such backing, its success
in winning 63 percent of the vote is understandable.

536 Unity Development. The Indonesian name is
Partai Persatuan Pembangunan (PPP). It was created in 1973
as a merger of four Islamic parties: the Muslim Scholars'
Party, the Indonesian Islamic Party, the United Islamic
Party of Indonesia, and the Muslim Teachers' Party
(PERTII).

537 Indonesian Democratic Party. This party also
came into existence in 1973 through a merger of five
non-Islamic parties: the Indonesian Nationalist
Party, the Upholders of Indonesian Independence, the
Catholic Party, the Protestant Party, and the People's
Party.

Summary

The two nongovernmental parties formed in 1973 maintained
their identity in the 1977 elections, which, however, Golkar
dominated with 62 percent of the vote. Nevertheless, the
Muslim PPP exercises some degree of independence in
parliament, opposing some aspects of government policy-"the
first time that any party had done so since President
Suharto took power" (Keesing's Contemporary Archives, July
7, 1978, p. 29073). Entering 1979, therefore, Indonesia had
a type of three-party system, but one dominated by a large
government-sponsored party and operating in a legislature in
which 22 percent of the members are appointed and thus also
supportive of the government. While the party system has
been "simplified" and bears little resemblance to that
before 1962, parties do not seem to have gained much in
influence. The stability of the system, especially in the
face of a resurgence of Islamic sentiment, will depend less
on the role these groups play in parliament than on the
ability of the government to cope with the increasingly
serious socioeconomic problems that cut across Indonesia
today.

1. Our study of party politics in
Indonesia is based on a file of 3,082 pages from 83
documents, all of which are in English (see Table 3.1).
The bibliographic search and indexing of material for the
file was done by Richard Hula, who also coded the
Indonesian parties on the variables in the ICPP
conceptual framework. Allan Goodman was our outside
consultant.